VailgirlVent

Morning Jog

2008-07-28T18:58:00.002-05:00

This morning, after much convincing by one of my roommates, I went for a 6am jog. All day I have been bouncing off the walls with energy and so happy I can't seem to wipe a smile off my face. I am not sure if this is because of the jog or the fact that I am heading home on Friday, but I think I'll keep up the morning jogs every couple of days as insurance.

PS Am I a dork if I post pictures of my plots back in toon-town that my supervisor sent me? They look really great! By the way, that was a rhetorical question.

Working as a team ...

2008-07-04T11:42:00.001-05:00

what a novel concept!

Almost Independence Day

2008-07-03T15:13:00.001-05:00

Would it be distasteful to wear something marking me as a Canadian to July 4th fireworks?

My Dad Made the Paper

2008-06-06T10:46:00.003-05:00

My Dad was quoted in an article of a local paper over the issue of a neighbour storing human sludge. He does like to speak his mind ...

Riding the bus in the greater Sacramento area

2008-05-30T19:37:00.002-05:00

About four and a half years ago, I had a very entertaining trip on a bus from Davis to Sacramento. Last night I had another amusing trip. While waiting at a stop with arms full of groceries, a friendly gentleman approached me. He was quite worried about aphids from the grass invading my grocery bags. I soon learnt that was not all that he was paranoid of. As a group of university students walked by, he was convinced they were calling him 'fat a**'. I heard no such term nor do I think they even noticed him. His groceries were double bagged. This was because he "didn't like people looking at what he was eating and making judgements". I was glad when the bus came.

On the bus, I ended up sitting near a couple who were having quite the amusing conversation. To sum it up, I never knew cleaning houses could be so interesting. I also didn't know those having their houses cleaned could be so blatantly racist.

The people who are riding the bus are not the only interesting thing about the buses in Davis. The extensive transit system is entirely run by undergraduate students! The first time I rode the bus it crossed my mind that my bus driver looked quite young. I then realized that all the drivers were really young. I guess I should have figured it out when I saw the name 'Unitrans'. Unitrans has been owned and managed by the UCDavis students for the past 20 years. Out of all the cities I've lived in (which is only 3), it is by far the best transit system I've experienced. And to think, the student body does that with only 10000 more than UofS in a city a third the size of S'toon. Maybe the USSU should look at starting their own transit system since our city administration can't seem to figure it out!

By the way, my groceries are aphid free.

First impressions of living in the U.S. of A.

2008-05-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

Flight booking is much more complicated when there are more than 2 airlines involved ...

First impressions of Davis, CA

2008-05-28T19:05:00.001-05:00

I have never seen so many bicycles in my life! No wonder California is one of the greenest states in existence.

ever so slight lament

2008-04-28T19:07:00.002-05:00

my last tax return as a 'single' person ... at least someone will be able to use my accumulating tuition credits next year.

Anger Management

2008-04-22T18:39:00.003-05:00

I never understood why someone would feel compelled to vandalize property until I had to deal with Parking Services and the Facilities Management department at the institution I work at. I wish there were designated places to vent via spray paint on this campus as there is at the other university I have attended.

housesitting again

2008-04-15T19:54:00.002-05:00

Riding the bus this morning, I realized that I had forgotten how mundane stucco in variations on beige could be.

Spring

2008-04-10T00:30:00.002-05:00

I am really glad spring is finally here. I am also really glad I live on the opposite side of the river from where the thousands of birds decided to hover over last night. Anyone walking along Spadina last night would have, I'm sure, had a little present from above that would have made them dislike spring, or at least the migratory part of it.

BTW, did anyone see or hear these birds last night. It was unreal. I could hear them locked away in my basement apartment and they looked like clouds of black circling around the sky. Most of them seemed to have moved on today.

Writing Scientific Papers

2008-04-10T00:25:00.005-05:00

When I was in Portugal last November, I spent a week writing a paper with a glass of wine in my hand. I had not looked at my drunken-masterpiece until now and realize I should never, ever write while consuming alcohol. I can't believe I thought what I wrote was decent let along good. My new thing is writing while listening to 90s grunge music.

She isn't sick ... she is a dancer!

2008-04-01T08:15:00.003-05:00

This past year I have had the pleasure of taking a class on teaching. It has been interesting to discuss something I have experience first-hand for the past 25 years, yet never considered from a theoretical perspective. Yesterday, we were shown this keynote address by Sir Ken Robinson on creativity in schools. If you have 20 minutes, I would highly suggest listening to the talk.

Wedding cake presentation

2008-03-26T23:00:00.003-05:00

Today I put my memory stick into a computer attached to a projector to upload a presentation of my research for some colleagues. There was a round of chuckles from the room as pictures of 20 different wedding cakes and several pictures of bouquets came up on the screen along with icons for my research folders and thesis documents. I guess I will have to be a little more discrete with my wedding files from here on in.

I can't wait for April 22nd!

2008-03-10T20:36:00.001-05:00

Any other fans of The Trews out there who are in a concert-attending mood?

crappy week

2008-02-29T20:36:00.000-06:00

thank goodness for dark chocolate and friends with bathtubs.

A reason why I love CBC

2008-02-14T18:58:00.003-06:00

Where else would I hear about the "Dance your PhD" competition? Are there any volunteers for portraying either Lens or Colletotrichum? Apparently the competition is going global this year! Maybe we will have to include the event as part of the banquet during our upcoming symposium …

An exciting day

2008-02-13T00:25:00.004-06:00

Today I discovered:
1) My lentils have screwy genetics. I was starting to get a little bored with my project, but this discovery has re-triggered my interest!

2) I love playing mid-fielder in soccer. I am not very good at it (yet) and really need to increase my endurance to play the position effectively. I shot directly on net 3 times tonight. Although none of the shots resulted in a goal, I was pretty proud of myself. I hope I have the chance to try the position again soon.

On another note, do you ever have one of those days when a certain word looks really curious? Today that word for me is interest. I remember the word ceiling once seeming quite strange to me as well.

Lentils are catching on!

2008-02-07T20:49:00.000-06:00

A friend told me today that she was inspired by the Oatmeal Lentil Chocolate Chip cookie recipe, so I thought I would post another favourite!

Spicy Lentil Soup

2 tsp olive oil
2 chopped onions
3 cloves of minced garlic
-cook in a large saucepan over medium-high heat about 2 minutes until softened

2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
-stir into cooked onion and garlic

2 tbsp all-purpose flour
-stir in till combined

7 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups dry red lentils
2 tbsp tomato paste (I usually use a whole small can)
-stir in and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, simmer for 25-30 minutes or until lentils are tender

1 can evaporated milk (I usually use regular fresh milk)
Salt and black pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro
-gradually stir in and reheat over medium low until just heated through, take care not to boil
-to make more spicy, add more cayenne pepper

Lentil New Year

2008-02-05T19:02:00.000-06:00

Due to the abundance of lentil-based recipes I cooked for New Years, the event was coined a 'Lentil New Year'. I thought I would share my new favourite lentil-based recipe with the whole world. I originally found the recipe on a SPG brochure. There are lots of great lentil recipes on their website, including another New Year's favourite, 'Lentil Pizza Squares'.

Oatmeal Lentil Chip Cookies
¾ cup of margarine or butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¾ cup lentil puree*
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips

*To create puree, blend well cooked lentils in a food processor or blender adding small amounts of water if necessary

• Pre-heat oven to 190oC (375oF)
• Cream together sugar and margarine. Add egg and mix until just blended. Add vanilla and lentil puree and mix until blended.
• Sift flour, salt and soda together. Add dry mixture 1/3 at a time to wet. Mix until just blended.
• Add oats and chocolate chips. Blend lightly.
• Drop 1 tsp portions onto a greased cookie sheet and flatten with a fork.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Yield: 36 servings

Cold stress response

2008-01-29T13:42:00.000-06:00

When I first moved to the province of Saskatchewan 6 years ago, I made the following observations (which at the time I found quite amusing) on how people managed the cold winters here:
1) Wearing sweat pants to work/school;
2) walking to school (from home or the parking lot) wearing full ski gear or insulated overalls with big bulky sorrel boots;
3) running from building to building or from a warm car to a building;
4) discussing at length the cold weather, especially with people who are experiencing a SK winter for the first time.
As I have adapted to life on the prairies, I have avoided the first (although own quite the assortment of long underwear), but have lost all qualms about doing the others. While in Portugal, I caught myself doing #4 with a couple of Germans then realized they had a really bored look on their face. A SK winter must be something you need to experience to find interesting.

Blue Monday

2008-01-22T14:10:00.000-06:00

Apparently yesterday was suppose to be the most depressing day of the year. I fared quite well with the only downside being my 2 left feet on the soccer court. Today (Tuesday) on the other hand has been a little bleak. After only 4 hours of sleep I have managed to set off an alarm system, almost miss the bus and loose my keys (found later) and have been dragging myself through today with what feels like clouds in front my eyes. Let's hope I can make it through the next 3 hours!

2008-01-04T09:26:00.000-06:00

2007

2007-12-31T10:41:00.000-06:00

An engagement for myself as well as for my little brother, 5 new stamps on my passport, some decent research results, scholarships equivalent to a substantial pay raise and a re-discovered love for soccer ... I'd say it's been a good year!

Acronyms!

2007-12-21T12:31:00.000-06:00

I wrote an email today that made me realize how many acronyms are used in my field. Can any non-science geeks decipher any of them in this exert?

"I talked to [somebody] this morning and he is willing to let us buy some time on the ABI machine for the SSRs and possibly AFLPs. He said that sequencing for SNPs is best done through PBI as it would end up costing more on his ABI machine. He also said there was a ‘guest’ bench available in his lab where I could work on all the PCRs that will be run on the ABI. The CAPS markers I can run most easily on agarose, probably in 3C17."

Prayer of Serenity

2007-12-18T13:09:00.000-06:00

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Especially the wisdom!
Vailgirl

Perplexed

2007-12-11T22:03:00.000-06:00

Can anyone figure this out?

2007-12-10T00:37:00.001-06:00

Is it appropriate to wear fish-net stockings to your staff Christmas party if they are with a conservative yet flattering outfit?

Christmas plant scientist style

2007-12-06T19:51:00.000-06:00

I really want to win this poinsettia at my work Christmas party next week!

It is that time of the year ...

2007-12-04T22:30:00.000-06:00

when my mom phones and says "what do you want for Christmas". My list seems to include a lot of things for cold weather this year. Imagine that. This is my list.

PS If anyone can tell me how to actually post the list, can you fill me in? Thanks.

Home sweet home.

2007-11-24T09:50:00.001-06:00

It is awefully good to be here after 24 hours of travelling. I am already resenting the cold weather and dark mornings although am finally enjoying a good cup of tea. Can't wait to see everyone. Go Riders!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2007-11-22T11:27:00.000-06:00

It is my birthday, I am alone in the city of Lisbon, and so what did I decide to do? Buy myself a lobster of course. I don’t ever recall eating lobster in my life, so at the ripe age of 29 I figured it was about time I took the plunge. It was good. My favourite part was the arms (there were no claws on my lobster). I also had a small bottle of Portuguese ‘green wine’, so if there are obvious grammatical errors in this note, please dismiss them as a sign of half-drunkenness. Other than eating lobster, my birthday has been rather uneventful. I took the train from Lagos back to Lisbon and sat across the isle from the grumpiest old man with the worst hack (what is it with grumpy old Portuguese people?). He yelled at me (in Portuguese) for putting my feet on the seat in front of me. He was rather high tech though listening to his mp3 player and talking on his cell phone (really loud).

Last night I had an encounter with some other characters, these of English decent. A couple from Manchester were ‘picked up’ (literally) by my 3 day Lagos landlord. Instead of spending money on a wedding, they were travelling the world for as many months as they could. They, along with the Swiss guy, my landlord and his friend celebrated my birthday, a day early, and their ‘honeymoon’ last night. I was avoiding my ex-rasta flat mate as he had turned rather stalker-ish and was freaking me out.

Tomorrow, I plan on seeing a few more sites in Lisbon and doing some shopping. I have been inspired by European fashion and figure I owe myself another birthday treat. I’ll try not to swipe my credit card too much, but can’t really guarantee anything.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes on Facebook and emails … they definitely make spending it alone in a foreign country much more bearable! It’s been a good trip, but I can’t wait to get home (and see Morgan).

Several days worth of blogging due to lack of internet connection

2007-11-20T04:35:00.001-06:00

Shopping in Lisbon
Never look at wallets for more than 5 minutes when being sold by a grumpy, old Portuguese lady on the street. You may have your hands slapped and may be yelled at in a language you do not understand. Very strange sales tactics indeed!

Small town Lisbon (2M)
While attending a Fado club we ran into our waiter from a fish restaurant we dined at the previous 2 nights. He joined us at our table and we found out that he was a retired ‘Fadisto’. After a couple performances by some other Fadistos, our waiter-friend did a 3 song set of Fado songs. He was very good! I really like Fado. If you are not familiar with it, imagine it as singers with operatic strength (but not the floweriness of opera) accompanied by a couple acoustic guitars.

Onto Lagos
On the train I was ‘invited’ to stay at an accommodation upstairs from a family in Lagos. I was a little suspicious of the guy marketing his ‘villa’ until I saw at the train station he had sent his wife and 2 kids to pick me up. Apparently he spends the day hanging out the bus station and riding the train to find travellers to fill his rooms in several different buildings around the city. Where I am staying is upstairs from his family. I am sharing a kitchen and bathroom with a rasta-French Canadian who is making my Lisbon experience interesting to say the least. He is pretty intense, so I was happy that my host picked up a Japanese and Swiss tourist to stay upstairs from us Sunday night. At one point the Swiss guy made the comment “how often do you see a guy from Quebec talking to a guy from Japan … in Spanish … in Portugal”. It was a pretty funny observation. On Sunday, my rasta-friend showed me around town. We went fishing by the port (you could see the fish in the water) then went to the beach and found some secret coves, caves and beaches. It was pretty amazing – Pictures to come! While exploring the town on bikes, I was amused to see the local’s reactions to my rasta friend biking around with his hands in the air singing lines of Bob Marley songs or whatever else is going through his head. He is some kind of a poet living off the $750 his brother gives him as a peace payment for not claiming his inheritance (or something to that effect).

Now it is time for work
Yesterday I typed up and revised a lab course outline and got a good start on a paper. Internet connections have been a problem, so I am happy to have now found a little café with free wireless. We’ll see if they kick me out before the batteries on the computer run out. Today it is raining. Actually, it is pouring … a good work day to say the least. Tomorrow it is back to Lisbon!

My mind is a ruminator

2007-11-16T04:05:00.000-06:00

That is how someone from our group described how I think the other day. The more I think about it, the more I realize that is true (case in point?). I have never been the type that has all the answers at the tip of my tongue, but much prefer to regurgitate things in my mind.

Yesterday (Thursday) morning, I skipped the conference sessions and took a bit of a breather to see some of Lisbon. I wandered and saw some some pretty amazing parts of the city. I rode a tram that put me in mind of a roller coasters, had an amazing view of the city from a hidden rooftop cafe and saw a very majestic palace-type building. The conference schedule is pretty packed and the time away was much needed.

After an excellent session on abotic stress, I had a bit of an unexpected experience. I was invited to join a meeting of all the huge lentil people with the head of the Grain Legume Improvement Program (GLIP) who is one of the smartest (yet most down to earth) people I have ever encountered. It is incredible that someone could understand everything at such a level of detail. Anyways, there were talking about using one of the populations I am working on is the basis for all future lentil work (BAC library development, common mapping parent and tilling population parent for those who are interested in the details). The exhilarating of this was comparable to having an animal you own selected as a champion at the Royal Winter Fair! It sounds like it may not go through due to some sterility problems I have encountered, but it was fun to think that it may be a possibility.

One more day of conferencing then it is beach time. I am really looking forward to it!

Day 3 at the 6thEGLC

2007-11-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

The conference has improved drastically, and I am very excited about legume genomics. My pink eye (I think I forgot to mention my ailment) is on the mend and I am becoming accustomed to the constant pain from the blisters covering my feet. Have you ever had a blister pop on the bottom of your foot while you are walking? It's pretty disgusting. I don't have very much exciting stuff to post about, that is unless you want to know about the ideas I have for my thesis project. I've met a few more interesting people at the conference, but this is by far the most unfriendly conference I have ever been to. Usually the students seek each other out and get to know each other, but other than bonding with my co-PhD student from my group (Lasantha rocks!), I have yet to talk to any students here. I was just able to phone my mom and leave a message at Morgan's which was nice. I like wine for lunch. Portugal is beautiful. The end (for now).

My first day in Portugal ...

2007-11-13T08:18:00.000-06:00

was a little bit frustrating. After being completely ripped off by a cabbie driving us from the airport the night before, I managed to loose the posters I had been entrusted with. I found them after walking around Lisbon with a pack on my back and backpack on the front for an hour. I had hoped to dump my pack at a hotel where work-people were staying but missed them after getting lost. Out of frustration I decided to find the hotel where I was staying during the conference. After some drunk (did I mention it was 10am on Sunday?) boys told me I needed to ´return the favour´after asking them for directions, I managed to find the train station leading me to the town the hotel is in. Reached the town in good shape, but due to a combination of horrible instructions, poor road signage and lack of bilingualism outside of Lisbon and lack of taxis, I ended up wandering around town for an hour and a half with my pack on. The day improved drastically after I finally landed at ´Inatel´ (pronounced ´Inatelé´with large hand motions by an elderly Portuguese woman). Once I had settled in, I took the train back towards Lisbon to the town of Belém (pronounced Belé) where I had some world famous custard tarts. While sitting in the tart-restaurant by myself, I made 2 random friends. A chatty girl asked me if they could join since it was busy (lineup down the street) and they were in a hurry to see the town. While eating, I heard her life story (she was quite chatty) and we ran into some other ´plant people´. It was pretty funny, cuz they joined us and my chatty new friend told her life story to one of the people (LB from AAFC Saskatoon to anyone from the business who is reading this -- very funny to watch her reaction to my new friend). After tarts, my new friends and I checked out the art gallery and a local landmark the ´toure de Belém´. After parting with my new friends I went to the monastery in town (v. beautiful but didn´t spend too long there as their was some kind of boy-scout reunion mass going on) before heading back to ´Inatelé´. Close to the hotel, there was a marina with some really nice cafés and restaurants where I had a couple glasses of wine, supper and crepés for desert while watching the soccer game between Lisbon and Porto. I´ve looked into going to a game while I am here, but don´t think it is going to fit into my schedule. Too bad.

Some strange things I have witnessed while being here is young girls figure skating on roller skating, professional ´sand soccer´ and a ´beach tennis´club (on the beach). I am still figuring out how to use bedéts and am finding Portuguese time is pretty horrible (I waited for a cab for 30 minutes this morning before getting annoyed and just walking to the train station!).

I am now in the 2nd day of the conference. It is not as good as I expected, but am not sure if I am totally engaged as I would be if I hadn´t travelled 20 hours overnight to get here. There are more interesting talks scheduled for the next few days, so I expect thing to get better. Anyhoo, better go. So glad I found this ´free internet´ room at the conference -- otherwise I´d be paying a lot of €s just to post!

PS sorry for the grammer -- in a hurry!

8.5 hours to go ...

2007-11-09T05:56:00.000-06:00

till i board a plane to Calgary. Then it's off to Frankfurt enroute to Lisbon Portugal! Next week I am attending the 6th European Conference on Grain Legumes. This is the biggest conference I have ever been involved with. It is really fun that I am actually starting to know a few people in the legume research community rather than just know of them on paper. It is funny to finally meet someone work you've read for several years and don't even know their gender.

After the conference, I am in Portugal for another week. I plan on heading to the southern coast, finding a room in a little beach town and having a 'writing retreat'. My thesis writing is really needing some attention and I've been too consumed with work and personal matters here at home to start, so I am going to use this opportunity to hopefully get caught up a bit. The idea of sitting at a little sea-side cafe with a laptop really appeals to me. Not only am I hoping to get caught up on my thesis writing, but a little blog writing as well. I'll keep you posted!

Voting in Saskatchewan

2007-11-07T21:56:00.000-06:00

That was the new experience I had today. After much careful consideration, I selected a party I wanted to support. Half an hour before the polls closed, I rolled in to cast my ballot. Much to my surprise, not only was the party the candidate was representing listed by their name, but their career was listed below in brackets. This came as quite a surprise to me. As I suppressed giggles behind the cardboard voting box I read through the job titles. There was a teacher, a writer, a secretary at a medical office, a communications consultant and a 'retired locomotive engineer'. Yup, I almost changed my vote cuz I thought the latter was such a unique career. Well not really, but I did find it tempting in the funny, non-serious political part of my brain. I am really trying to remember what the career of Marijuana Party's candidate ... I am pretty sure it didn't say 'grower' or 'producer' or 'botanist'. That for sure would have made me laugh out loud.

Test of endurance

2007-08-16T08:25:00.001-05:00

My former supervisor referred to a PhD as a 'test of endurance' yesterday. The adrenalin and excitement about my project wore off about 4 months ago and I am praying I my endurance will last another year to 18 months ...

A good weekend

2007-08-13T23:40:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago, if you told me I would think a great weekend involves making 7 pies, 4 jars of dilled beans and 7 jars of pickles along with a couple of meals and 10 liters of cooked beans, I would have thought you were nuts. I love being domestic for short periods of time!

Due to the large welt on my shin, as of tonight I vow to:

2007-08-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

A) Never play keeper in co-ed campus rec soccer where there are a lot of very fast, skill-less, out of control male strikers.

B) Stop being so cheap and buy myself something a little better than the cheapest available shin guards.

You should see this thing ... it is already sitting a centimeter above my leg. It made me drop the f-bomb (by accident of course) when it happened. Maybe I'll have to post some pics once it turns purple. It may even challenge the 'a-hole biking on the the wrong side of the path' bruise I had last summer.

The past week

2007-07-23T18:49:00.000-05:00

I am really not sure if anyone is reading my blog any more, but in the case this will be read by one person, here is an update on the exciting/busy last week of my life:

-Tuesday I passed my comprehensive exam (long, oral exam with my committee members). I had been dreading this exam since starting my degree, so although I did not do stellar on it, I passed and am really happy to have it over with.

-After a long day of rating diseased plants and a frustrating morning of juggling appointments (in one case the service person did not show up to work therefore I had to wait an extra 45 minutes) and running errands, on Thursday I arrived at a friends place to help out with some wedding preparations the following day.

-On Friday, I was a small part of a good friends wedding. It was an emotional day. It was mostly tears of joy.

-On Saturday, my little brother proposed to his girlfriend. This was also another emotional day and again it was mostly tears of joy. I was sad I could not be at home to celebrate with my family and their friends. I am most excited that I am going to have a sister. I have wanted one ever since my brother was born. I actually tried to make him into a girl by putting dresses and makeup on him when we were little, but it didn't seem to work.

I am hoping for a couple of dull weeks so I can get caught up on some lab work, some friendships I have been neglecting and some baking for my poor bf who has gotten even a little skinnier since I started studying for my comprehensive.

A Note for Non-Biologists:

2007-07-13T01:15:00.000-05:00

You would be quite surprised at the variety of uses salmon sperm has in plant molecular biology.

I love India!

2007-07-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

While doing some extra-curricular reading on the suggestion by my supervisor, I came across an article in the 'Sci Tech' section of an Indian newspaper called The Hindu on hand water pumps for rural villages. I would like to highlight the following quote from the article:

"Gender friendly
The treadle pump is also gender friendly as both men and women can easily operate it unlike certain agricultural operations such as tractor which require men to drive them."

Besides the poor grammar, I don't think you would find a statement like that in a Canadian newspaper.

Consuming our live earth

2007-07-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

I attempted to comment on Matt's post on Live Earth, but have given up on Typekey, so decided to make a post of my own with thoughts regarding ‘Live Earth’ this past weekend. Yes, I will admit that I did listen to series of concerts from Duran Duran to Bon Jovi (as studying background noise only) and as the day progressed, the more ludicrous I found the whole thing to be. I fail to see how a bunch of selfish celebrities who offset their enormous carbon imprint by sponsoring tree plantings on some uncompensated subsidence farmers land are now experts on climate change or are making any real difference in solving the problem. Especially since the event was just an opportunity to boost record sales (I don’t blame them as it was great publicity). I am tempted to send Tanya Kim hate mail, especially after her and her equally dizzy co-hosts musings on how cool of a city Tokyo is and how we should all travel there … the conversation seemed a little oxymoronic within the context of event. Too bad Sheryl Crow wasn’t featured promoting her 1 square for #1, 2 squares for #2 rule, although that probably wasn’t ‘cool’ enough for the star-studded line up. One of the most annoying things about the event was cell phones. From Enrique Iglesias snapping shots of himself with fans with their cell phone cameras during his performance to encouraging people to text pledges in order to see their name on international television, the emphasis on cell phones demonstrated what I think is the underlying problem causing climate change. Consumerism, the need to buy, the need to do or the need to see is the source of irresponsible use of resources. I think cell phones are the perfect example of it as they are the most disposable electronic devices available. Out of all the performers over 26 hours, only Melissa Etheridge even mentioned that societies mind set needs to change regarding our needs versus our wants. I guess what I am trying to say is that most celebrities are the epitamy of the underlying reason for climate change thus are the most undeserving heroes. It seems ironic that society needs a bunch of hypocrites to tell us to use common sense in our everyday life styles.

Boob Job

2007-06-21T15:10:00.001-05:00

I suspect a friend had her breasts augmented. I would like to ask her if this is, but am not sure how to approach the topic. Any suggestions?

Names

2007-06-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

I work in an international community. When you have several different languages and cultures colliding, sometimes it can be quite confusing. Name syntax is not straight forward, especially Asian names. Often new people in the department are called by their last name for the first few months. For example, Dr. R came to the department last fall. Everyone from the lab he was working in called him Dr. R for the first month, then shortened it to R. A month later, his lab mates realized his name was actually A, so while his coworkers were calling him A, the rest of the department was calling him R. I know full well that his name is A, but out of habit called him R yesterday. Afterwards, I thought how strange would it be to randomly be called 'Vail' by people I work with. I think that would even be funnier than being called 'Shally' for a month.

derailment

2007-06-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

did everyone in the greater s'toon area forget how to drive the last couple of days? i have seen a heck of a lot of smashed up vehicles around ... including some rail cars turned over with grain pouring out! on top of that, i was almost hit by some dork who was having trouble staying in his own lane this afternoon. i think i'll bike on the sidewalk till my trust in vehicle drivers is restored.

Bad Electronic Luck

2007-06-09T19:46:00.000-05:00

Within the past few days I have managed to lose the following electronics:
-my memory stick
-my diskman

I am disappointed to have lost the following things in descending order:
1) my memory stick (I am actually going to burn Monday's conference presentation on a CD!)
2) my Regina Spektor CD in my diskman case
3) The rechargeable batteries in my diskman.

To be perfectly honest, I was hoping my diskman would be stolen so I'd have a good excuse to buy an ipod. I'd hoped I would loose all the stuff listed above along with it.

all grown up

2007-06-05T19:10:00.000-05:00

today i wrote a letter of reference for someone applying to graduate school. i do not feel mature or accomplished enough to do so, but i did 'er anyways.

180

2007-05-27T23:45:00.000-05:00

Last week I wanted to quit academia. I felt a little better about my future after some medicinal ice cream (thanks K), but was still doubting until this evening. My optimism was reverted thank to acceptance of a my first paper into a scientific journal. Although this is occurring about 18 months later than I would have liked, it is still an acceptance into a great journal and enhances my CV tremendously. Thank goodness there are some open minded scientist in the world of plant pathology. Too bad it took 2 tries to find them!

Pretty much describes the past week for me ...

2007-05-22T17:52:00.001-05:00

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. JAMES THATCHER,
BRAND MANAGER,PROCTER & GAMBLE.

Dear Mr. Thatcher,
I have been a loyal user of your Always maxi pads for over 20years, and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horsebackriding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has tobe your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only companysmart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi-pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel eachmonth knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Eversuffered from "the curse"? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my "time of the month" is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutesfrom now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what myhusband likes to call "an inbred hillbilly with knife skills." Isn't the human body amazing?As brand manager in the feminine-hygiene division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers' monthly visits from Aunt Flo. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, andcramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behaviour. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps. Crazy!

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in capri pants. Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wantedto reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxipad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: "Have a Happy Period." Are you fucking kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brainreally think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness - is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything "happy" about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end yourlife in a blaze of glory. For the love of God, pull your head out, man.If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like "Put Down the Hammer" or "Vehicular Manslaughter Is Wrong"? Or are you justpicking on us? Sir, please inform your accounting department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flexi-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullshit. And that's a promise I will keep.

Always.
Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin, TX

2007-04-20T09:01:00.000-05:00

It is really eerie hearing the name of someone you respected in negative spotlight on the national news.

Joke

2007-04-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

Why was the plant breeder so upset?

Because his plant breeding experiments were making him cross!

House-sitting

2007-04-11T14:29:00.000-05:00

Wiener dogs and teenagers are both peculiar creatures in very different ways.

The sound of a cat barfing beside your bed is not a very nice way to wake up.

2007-04-06T15:03:00.000-05:00

I've upload a whole bunch more pictures from my trip thanks to my travel mate Shauna. She definately took some good ones!

Orxy and Crake

2007-04-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spend some time reading through my blog archives. 2 years of blogging marks the longest I have ever journalled. Looking back, I am really glad to I take the time to post some random thoughts. My travel posts are definitely more interesting then my daily thought, but I do appreciate the latter.

In October of 2005, I wrote a slightly random post on purring people. I had forgotten this post. While travelling a month ago I read the book 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Atwood. In the book, a transgene-junkie (or gene jockey as we plant scientist tend to call them) named 'Crake' made some people possessed a feline vocal box that allowed them to purr. Purring wavelengths acted similar to ultrasound in healing wounds. I am not sure if she made this point up. Anyways, I was happy to realize yesterday that I am not the only person that considered purring people and that my mind had a single though similar to the great Atwood.

Question:

2007-04-04T20:18:00.000-05:00

If you saw a quarter at the bottom of a clean semi-public toilet, would you pick it up?

I used the same toilet 3 times at work today, and the quarter never flushed down with the refuse.

I love Leaf Rapids!

2007-04-02T13:48:00.000-05:00

Today marks the first day a Canadian municipality has implemented a ban on polyethylene bags. The town of Leaf Rapids Manitoba is following suit of many Asian countries, Ireland and the metropolis of San Francisco whereby selling or distributing plastic bags is illegal. After witnessing the effects of law in Bangladesh, I asked myself ‘if a developing country with a population of 500 million people can effectively function without plastic bags, why can’t Canada??’ I heard about the town of Leaf Rapids this morning on The Current and as all good reporters do, the host had a rebuttal from the plastics industry. It was a weak counter argument saying almost all plastic shopping bags are recycled. I would like to call B.S. as I have a garbage bag full of plastic shopping bags (from my grocery store trips where I forget my reusable bags) that I have been unsuccessful in finding somewhere to recycle. CBC News has a good online article about plastic bag bans which you can read here, but just in case you don’t follow the link, I wanted to insert an exert into my post that I found quite amusing:

“A cow found dead in the streets of New Delhi recently had some 35,000 plastic bags in its digestive system, according to Indian media reports. Cows are viewed as sacred animals by most Hindus.”

PS I don't find bovine death funny, but after seeing many, many cows eating out of garbage bins in India, the above statement didn't surprise me. The number or bags did surprise me. Poor cow!

PSS Even though Bangladesh has no plastic bag garbage, it is still a developing country therefore has a lot of litter, especially in the cities.

Funny Vocabulary

2007-03-28T21:17:00.000-05:00

While I'm on the topic of vocabulary, I thought I would share a exert from the Indian Institute of Pluses Research pamphlet I was given when visiting the station. Under the heading 'Brief History', it reads:
"Before metamorphosing into its present incarnation in 1993, the Institute has started its journey as All India Coordinated Pulses Improvement ... It was later elevated as Directorate of Pluses Research ... The AICPIP was trifurcated in to three coordinated projects on chickpea ... the Institute is playing a key role in strengthening the nutritional security and sustenance of soil health."

I found it funny that such elaborate vocabulary was used within a paragraph plagued with grammatical errors, although who is the English as a first language person to point fingers. I am sure I would slaughter a paragraph in Hindi and rely quite heavily on a thesaurus.

Expanding My Vocabulary

2007-03-27T21:16:00.000-05:00

Today I read 2 articles and learnt a new word in each of them. They are very good words. I would suggest incorporating them into your vocabulary. I plan on doing so. Here they are:

Emanating - verb : to come out from a source a sweet scent emanating from the blossoms

Ameliorate - transitive verb : to make better or more tolerable; intransitive verb : to grow better.

Actually, I think I new emanating already. Oh well.

Is it garden time yet???

2007-03-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

This weekend I got approval to put in a small garden at Morgan's. I am so excited! So I am starting a list of thing I plan on putting in my garden (to go along with the raspberries and rhubard that are apparently already established). Here it is (so far):
-Tomatoes
-Cucumbers (I love making pickles!)
-Carrots
-Lettuce
-Onions
-Potatoes
-Pumpkins
-Sweet corn (I know it will not be the same as home, but it's better than nutin')
Any more suggestions/requests?

In the future I hope to expand the garden to include strawberries, a dozen sour cherry trees, saskatoon berry bushes and maybe some apple trees, but for now I think I should focus on the annuals. Happy spring everyone!

Facebook

2007-03-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

I have found a new distraction. I do not need a new distraction right now. I am very busy, although you would not know that based on the amount of time I have wasted on Facebook this past week. Facebook is annoyingly addictive. I have located many of my old friends from home (a few I was hoping to forget) and joined a group called 'My first drink was at a cow show ... and it wasn't the last'. I am going to set up Facebook regulations for myself so I do not spend more than 1 hour a week wasting time on it. I knew I was wasting time last night when I asked each of the leaders of the 3 non-franco major political parties to be my friends (the PM included).

Table manners

2007-03-16T19:55:00.000-05:00

Since returning, I have realized in 3 different times that my table manners have disappeared. I am not surprised. When an entire sub-continent eats with their hands, I guess what we would consider table manners are not a part of the dining culture. And when you are exposed to that for the better part of a month I am sure it is bound to wear off. For example, whenever we would have a meal in Bangladesh, it would be like everyone was pulling up to the trough. People would eat fast, with their elbows on the table, would dish up their food and not pass it along, would make sucking noises while eating and would indulge their entire hand into their plate of food, the lick it off when finished (sometimes up to the forearm!). At the conclusion of their meal (at which time I would be done about 1/2 my food), they would proceed to get up from the table, walk over to the communal sink which was usually in the dining room and hoark. This wasn't a quiet spit either. More like multiple digging from their throats with massive amounts of air derived from the diaphragm. So if I happen to eat with my elbows on the table and speak with food in my mouth for the next few weeks while I am adjusting to a mannered society, please forgive me.

Not a real post yet

2007-03-11T17:23:00.000-05:00

I have uploaded a pile of pictures from my trip on my Flickr site, but have not yet had a chance to fill you in on the details of the last week of my trip. Once again, Shauna has described things in much more detail than I would provide. I also suspect she is in the process of uploading some pictures to her flickr site. There are some great ones Shauna! I journaled quite a bit throughout the last leg of the trip and will hopefully transcribe some of my thought within the next week, so please keep on reading!

I'm okay!

2007-03-10T05:11:00.000-06:00

but i don't have long to post. I am at heathrow airport in london right now waiting to fly out in an hour and a half. i'll have to write a long post on my journeys since my last post when i get home. it was a crazy ride!

the past 2 days i have been taking in some sites in london and visiting with my cousin andrew and his girlfriend maki. i love london and find the way british people talk to fish very amusing ... i'll explain later. a big congradulations to andrew who was offered a position as a history prof at laurentian university last night. i think i am a prof-offer good luck charm as this is the second time i have been with someone who was offered the job! anyways, gotta go, only a few minutes left before my pound worth of time runs out.

2007-02-25T11:13:00.000-06:00

After a long journey (thanks to some protesters plugging a mountain highway, we have finally arrived in Pokhera for the night. Apparently when an accident occurs, friends of the victims hold up traffic for 4 hours until they can negotiate a settlement with the driver who caused the accident. SGI is right now looking pretty good. We will not spend much time here as we are suppose to be on the road by 7 tomorrow (which means we will leave the hotel at 7:45). Tomorrow we will be back in Kathmandu.

How to wrangle a rhinoceros:

2007-02-25T11:07:00.000-06:00

1) Get on elephant’s back and head to jungle.
2) Find rhino in jungle.
3) Surround rhino with 3 elephants.
4) Slowly (as that is the only speed an elephant moves) encroach rhino from all directions using any means, including moving a medium sized tree. This is done quite easily by elephant’s trunk.
5) Make some noise (such as whistling) to budge rhino.
6) Chase rhino so tourist can take pictures (tourist are on top of elephant’s back).
7) Leave rhino alone in bush.
8) Allow elephant to take a large trunkful of roughage (including a 4” diametered branch) and allow elephant to eat while wandering through jungle looking for other wildlife.

How to wash an elephant:

2007-02-25T10:55:00.000-06:00

1) Climb on elephant’s bare back. It will be rather uncomfortable as elephant’s spine sticks out and elephant’s hairs, although spare, are scratchy on bare legs.
2) Hang on for dear life as elephant walks towards river. Beware of horses as elephant gets a thrill out of spooking them.
3) When finally at the river (your bum is very soar at this point), elephant will want to lay down in water. As elephant lays down, move from back to side of elephant. This is easier than it sounds as elephant does everything very slowly. Another option is to jump from elephant’s back into river. The water is nice and warm.
4) Find a rock, preferably one with very rough edges (ie. broken cement with gravel in it). Scrub elephant as hard as you can with rock (the roughest edge) all over. Scrub extra hard on spots where extra dirt has accumulated such as elephant’s hip bones. Elephant will really enjoy this and probably put his or her head in the water to lay it down, but leave trunk 3” out of waters to breath. Elephant enjoys it most when legs and bum are scrubbed.
5) Stand clear of elephant as he or she stands up and lays down on the other side.
6) Repeat #4. Elephant may decide to take a big breath, submerge his or her trunk and blow some bubbles in the water. This is very funny.
7) Climb on elephant. Carefully scramble from side to back of elephant as he or she stands up.
8) Plug your nose and close your eyes as elephant will now take a large trunkful of water and spray it over their back (where you are sitting). Some elephants enjoy doing this more than others. The larger the trunk, the more water, and the harder the blast of water.
9) Once again, brace yourself on elephant’s spiny back and head home.

I love Nepal!

2007-02-24T08:15:00.000-06:00

This trip just keeps on getting better and better! Thursday afternoon (I think) we arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal. Kathmandu is like an Asian version of Cusco and has a great vibe (a much welcomed change to Dhaka). The city is generally much more colourful than any we had seen on this trip with buildings of all pastel colours you could imagine. The architecture is also amazing (not plain old cement buildings like Dhaka). After settling into our very authentic (but nice) hotel, we wandered the incense-filled, vendor-lined streets looking at the countless ancient Hindu temples. There are a lot of Buddhist monks in Kathmandu which I guess can be expected since 'religious pilgrimage' was an option on the visa application.
Yesterday, we took a mesmerizing trip from the Kathmandu valley down to the Teri (flatland) region of Nepal. We visited the main research station for pulses. It was a little chaotic and I feel really sorry for the scientist here who are working with very limited resources and a lot of discontinuity within their jobs and programs (all government inflicted). The lentils we have seen so far are growing amongst a lot of weeds (only about 60% ground coverage with crop) or are so deficient of boron there is very little likelihood of any yield.
Last night and tonight, we are staying at a beautiful resort right on the edge of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Last night we saw a cultural presentation that included some 'stick dancing' (a dance the natives do). I looks like it would be quite dangerous to learn. First thing this morning, we went on an elephant safari (rode on elephants through the jungle) and saw 2 rhinos, a stork, an eagle, a couple peacocks, a bunch of deer and some monkeys. After that adventure, Shauna and I rode our elephants (bare back = very scary) to the river and helped the mahutes wash our elephants. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done! After lunch, we all went on a jeep safari through the jungle. We saw more rhinos, birds and a different kind of monkey. I guess I should explain why we are jungle-safaring instead of looking at lentils. Government employees (our Nepali colleagues) are on strike, so are not working. If they are still on strike tomorrow, we are going to rent a vehicle (we can't use the bus that we have been using since it has government plates) and will drive to Pokhera (I may have spelt that wrong). However, we did observe a few lentil fields on the back of our elephants on the way to the jungle this morning ...

2007-02-22T03:09:00.000-06:00

Jamie posted some pictures from the airport pre-my departure for this trip around the world. It seems like ages ago already. Thanks Jamie!

Lost in Translation?

2007-02-22T02:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, when ordering lunch, Blaine ask if he could have his coke in the bottle (cuz that always tastes better). The waiter said "no, that is not allowed". What a classy joint our hotel restaurant was. The day before yesterday I was waiting to use the Internet in the hotel business centre. During my wait, I had 3 men offer me a seat and each time I responded saying "no, I want to stand" (7 days in a van gets to your tailbone). Finally the boss-appearing person said "please sit, it looks bad". I walked out and decided to use the computer later.

So it is 3pm over here on this side of the world, and we are waiting for our flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. My supervisor just got Skype (voice over Internet) working and I volunteered to wake up my parents to try it out. Sorry Mom and Dad! (but it was good to talk to them for a few minutes) I am hoping I am allowed to carry my own suitcase in Nepal ... being doted on once in a while is nice, but the level of it I am experiencing here is more exhausting than doing things myself!

Well Adapted*

2007-02-21T19:41:00.000-06:00

This is the term the Bengalees used to describe me relative to the other Canadian students. There are the reasons I am 'well adapted' to Bangladesh:
-I love the food and it is causing me no grief
-I find the culture quite amusing (rather than annoying as some of the others do)
-I love warm/hot weather and much prefer it to cold
-I wear a shari (sari in Bengali) quite well (picture hopefully to come -- ran out of room on my flickr account), actually come to think of it, I did keep tripping over it so maybe I didn't wear it so well
-I have great hair in humid weather that required very little effort (although there was an Indian woman on our trip who told me the last day I needed to comb my hair but I don't think she realized that if I comb my curly hair I would have a 70s style fro)
-I am a morning person on this side of the earth. I have never been a morning person. I figured my body would adjust to circadian time, however, I think my body runs on real time.

If I didn't miss a certain someone back home so darn much, I just might have decided to stay! Although I would find the crazy driving conditions and no female/male hand shaking policy hard accept. Can you imagine how awkward it would be to try to say good bye to a bunch of men you spent the week with, some of who you got to know quite well, and not even be able to touch. Weird.

*For my non-plant breeder/geneticist readers, 'well adapted' is a commonly used plant breeding term for a genotype that grows well in a given environment

Photos of Bangladesh

2007-02-20T08:37:00.000-06:00

I have posted some pictures on my flickr site from our trip (go to the flickr badge on the right and click the little hand once or twice Mom). Also, Shauna has posted some pictures and a much more comphrehensive description of our trip (the words underlined are links Mom, click the little hand on them and it will take you there).

Come to Bangladesh – Before the tourist do

2007-02-19T23:06:00.000-06:00

That is a slogan on a few tourist posters I have seen here. I figure the posters are quite old since they are faded and the tourists have yet to come! For the past week we have been traveling through some of the most untouched areas one could imagine. I saw the first white person I have seen this morning in Dhaka after 8 days! I am curious to pick up a Lonely Planet guide for Bangladesh to see if they even suggest traveling to the western part of the country as there is not a lot of tourist-type attractions and essentially no infrastructure for backpackers. That is why this trip has been such a unique opportunity. I had an elderly woman tell me (in Bengali) that I was the first white person she had ever seen. That very well could have been the case for most of the people we saw on our journey through the rural regions of Bangladesh. It was a little awkward sometimes, as us ‘white people’ felt as though be were under a microscope. One morning while we were waiting for our departure, we were sitting in a van and had the usual crowd of admirers around us. I believe it was Jesse who made the comment ‘I feel like we are in a fish bowl’. Most of the attention is on Shauna and Myself (being female), however people are also curious about the big white giants that accompany us. That particular morning, there was a crowd of about 10 gazing at me. Just staring out of pure innocent curiosity, not saying much (except maybe asking where I was from) and not attempting to pick me up (contrary to my Latin American experience). One of our Indian colleagues told me that they probably wanted to touch me to see if I was a ghost. After about 7 minutes of intensive staring, they noticed Shauna at the back of the van and moved on to inspect her. Whenever we would stop, we would usually attract a group of inquisitive starers. One particular time we stopped just after sunset (for our Muslim colleagues prayers) and I wandered into a shoe store. One of our Bengali hosts noticed that the store was selling Hindi wedding head gear and asked the shop keeper if we could use them for some photos. I first had my picture taken (with my new ‘husband’ Ashutosh) then Shauna and Jesse had theirs done. By this time, a crowd of about 100 had gathered outside the shop for the entertainment. They were ecstatic to find out that Shauna and Jesse were an actual married couple. Moving back to our vehicles, the crowd followed and surrounded us. I am surprise we were able to get away!
Our last night on the road, we spend along the beach in Kuakata right on the Bay of Bengal. Shauna and I were really excited about going swimming but quickly realized that our shorts, let along our bathing suits would not be appropriate attire for the region especially since the women were dressed even more conservatively as we approached the coast (full head and face coverings). Luckily we were able to buy some material to wrap around our waists (‘Luglis’ I believe they are called which is garments most men wear) and rent a motor boat that took us in off the coast to swim. It was a nice break from the staring crowd (who were still probably trying to watch us from the beach).
Both Shauna and I do not mind the kids staring and their inquisitivity. It is really endearing to think that our visit to their village will probably make a lasting impression in their childhood memories -- the day the white girls visited ...
The staring I got use to. What was harder to get use to was the picture taking. Bengalis love to have their picture taken. I think that is why they do not think anything of taking our pictures without permission. Fortunately most of the population of Bangladesh is not able to afford cameras, however some of the tourist at the beach couldn’t keep their camera lenses to themselves. By yesterday, I decided to just have fun with the photographers we ran into. I gave them the ‘thumbs up’ signal and put on a cheesey smile. Within our traveling group, many of the men also loved to take our pictures. I am pretty sure my picture beside plots will far surpass any of the other tour participants. There was one guy in particular that would take my picture about 10 times a day. I got accustomed to hearing him say “Shally, picture here!”. Again, we decided to have fun with their desire to have our picture and decided to get our picture with many of the characters on the tour.
Tomorrow we fly to Nepal for another week of traveling adventures. We hear that we will be a little more on the beaten path, thus not quite the focus of attention for the locals. I am as excited about that as I am about the tour!
Cheers,
Mr. Shally (that is what one of my hotel receipts says, seriously!)

The last 3 days in Banladesh

2007-02-16T10:12:00.000-06:00

Uuuughm. I just spent 45 minutes writing about our last 3 days and accidentally erased it trying to copy it! I hate computers!

In short, since my last post we have been travelling the countryside looking at lots of lentil fields and learning a lot about tropical agriculture. They North American guys in our contingent were all sick with food poisoning, but are now feeling better. I didn't get sick thanks to the tetracycline I am on for malaria. Plot tours are quite amusing here due to a strange mixture of personalities and cultures and I now feel confident diagnosing stemphyllium blight.

We had an amazing experience yesterday when we visited lentil fields in the village of Ghanna. The village had arranged a reception for us where we were showered with Marigold petals by school children while walking to a tent where we addressed about 200 farmers after having marigold necklaces put on us by the cutest little girls ever! It was incredible and is far beyond anything I ever imagined for this trip.

Today we took a day of rest and visited the Mangrove forest where unbenounced to us, we were actually the tourist attraction. I now know what celebrities feel like when avoiding the paparazzi. Blaine was even giving signatures! Luckily we were able to take a boat ride up a peaceful river where there were considerable less people than in the rest of the country. The population density of Bengladesh is completely overwhelming. Imagine 150 million people in southern Ontario. Yeah.

Here's hoping for better health and no Bengali tourist with cameras for the next few days!

Notes from Shally:

2007-02-13T19:24:00.000-06:00

-Shally is my Indian name
-Blaine and Jesse are really enjoying the food (Yea), although I am still out eating Blaine by about 2X. This is a small point of concern (for me and my weight management) seeing as Blaine has about 75-100 lbs on me.
-The last leg of our flight, we shared the plane with the Bangladesh national cricket team. This is the equivalent of sharing the plane with the Toronto Maple Leaves.
-I now know the meaning of jet lag. Yesterday morning and early afternoon were good, but late afternoon and evening were a little rough. I fell asleep on the 2 hour ride back to the hotel (about 30 km!), before going for supper and at supper (which was the best Thai food I've ever eaten for not a whole lot of money).
-Shauna has posted some pictures. She is our official photographer.
-We presented yesterday. It was quite amusing. The power kept going off and whenever it did the crowd would yell "just wait 4 minutes, it will come back". The cell phones ringing every 5 minutes was also amusing/annoying. There are some really funny rings. For example, Jesse was presenting and all off a sudden we heard 'ribbit, ribbit'. Jesse thought he was either tripping out on the Malaria drugs or was suffering from extreme fatigue. It was also amusing as the person managing the computer projecting the presentation was quite computer illiterate. Actually, that wasn't so much amusing as it was very aggravating. I am glad I didn't make any glaring mistakes on my presentation (ie. say something different than what was on my slide), as the whole crowd would have corrected me.
-I have never met a group of people who are so concerned and adamant about staying on time, yet are so constantly behind time.
-I believe their is an art to horn honking while driving. Actually, it is more like a language all unto it's own consisting of long, short, loud or soft beeps. I am very happy drivers do not talk on cell phones while driving, even if ever other person in the vehicle is on the phone at the same time.
-Plastic bags are illegal in Bangladesh. I think Latin America should adopt the same policy.

Morning 1 in Bangladesh

2007-02-12T18:32:00.001-06:00

So here I am at 6:30 in the morning in the rather rustic business centre of my hotel in Dhaka. I woke up at 5 this morning ready to face the lentil world! Upon arrival at the hotel yesterday morning, we discovered that we did not have today off as expected. Instead we would be sitting through an entire day of presentations. Hearing this while being extremely fatigued (partly due to an unexpected extended layover extending our trip from 35 to 40 hours), we were a little shocked, but I actually woke up this morning feeling quite refreshed. I also had the pleasant surprise to waking up to great hair! I forgot how a little bit of humidity can spring my locks. In about an hour and half, we will head to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to commence the workshop.

Looking back over our trip here, I can't say it was all bad despite the long layovers in stuffy, boring airports. We saw a little bit of everything from around the globe including the middle-eastern Muslim ladies in full dress (yet carrying designer hand bags??) to some of the cutest kids ever to some kind of Caucasian explorer with the largest head I have ever seen topped with the largest hat I have ever seen ...

Arrival in Dhaka was interesting. Jamie will be happy to know that the crowds of people gated off at the airport are still there. I had the 'pleasure' of sitting shot gun on the ride to the hotel. I have no idea why a poor country would waste precious resources on painting 3 lanes on a free way when everyone drives in 5! The rickshaws are beautifully decorated and there are quite a few 1 tonne trucks that are painted really nicely. While passing a train, we saw some kids standing on top, wind blowing in their hair (yup the train was going that fast).

At the hotel last night, we met some of the workshop delegates from Pakistan, India and the US. I was disappointed to find out that a few people from Australia and USDA who I thought were going to be here did not come. We had some excellent lentil soup last night and so far the food is totally living up to my anticipatory expectations. I'm off for some breakfast now. Hopefully I have a chance to post before heading on the road (either tomorrow or the next day -- we're not sure since apparently we do not have a schedule).

28 hours down, 8 more to go

2007-02-11T14:55:00.000-06:00

so here i am, in transit to the other side of the world. after a brutal 7 hour layover in frankfurt, i am happy to now be travelling with a much better air line than air canada. 9am tomorrow, we will arrive in dhaka, bangladesh where we will have a chance to rest and adjust for about a day and a half (i think) before commencing the travelling workshop on lentil.

since i am referring to 'we', i guess i should introduce who my travel partners are (for my non-UofS readers). Our fearless leader is my supervisor bert. travelling with bert is like travelling with a personal tour guide. His breadth of international experience is already making the trip very interesting (even though all we've seen is the inside of airports). bert is the lentil and bean breeder at the crop development centre and the head of the pulse crop group. bert has a miniature doxen named oskar. i love oskar except he has a bit of bladder control problem. blaine is an msc student who is studying greenness in lentils. blaine and i first bonded over a horrendous plant breeding group project last fall. blaine has never been outside of north america and kinda sticks out like a soar thumb in the airports (i can't imagine how he's going to look in the streets of dhaka. i am not sure what blaine is going to eat on the trip as he is a good 'ol meat and potatoes sk farm boy. the other 2 people i am travelling with are jesse and shauna. jesse is another msc student who is studying milling efficiency in red lentil and shauna is his wife who couldn't pass up the opportunity to join us. shauna is a massage therapist, but unfortunately has already made it very clear that she is not working while we are travelling. too bad since i am already quite stiff from plane-sleeping. the description about blaine also applies to jesse except that jesse visited boliva in highschool.

i can't believe this trip of a life time is actually happening. for a long time, i have wanted to visit south east asia. i think the only way this trip could be any better is if i get to go to an indian wedding. i am dying to see how close bollywood portrays the festivities. i am also curious to see if actually use the strange combinations of swear words like in bollywood films ....

Expanding My Breeding Horizons

2007-01-29T17:09:00.000-06:00

Today I learnt how to make canola, wheat and tomatoes have sex. Within the next few days I will learn the same with barley and peas. Wow, I live such an exciting life! Speaking of which, the countdown is on -- 12 more days till departure!

today is one of those days

2007-01-25T14:06:00.000-06:00

where i want to quit and get a job at mcdonald serving burgers and fries. well, maybe that is a little extreme, but today i do wish i had stopped after 1 degree ... or the 2nd.

6 Weird Things

2007-01-19T00:19:00.001-06:00

My friend Joanna (with the twins) tagged me. At first I thought I was suppose to come up with 6 reasons why I am weird, then I realized it was 6 things about me that are weird. Feel free to add any others to the comment section and don't worry, I am very good at laughing at myself.

1) Whenever I meet a new friend I can't help but show them my 'cow album' of the girls at home, even if they are laughing in disbelief.

2) I talk to myself, a lot.

3) I moved to the middle of the frickin' cold prairies in January 5 years ago.

4) Last Monday I taught Analysis of Variance and T-Tests to a group of undergraduate students and thought I was in heaven for a brief moment.

5) I seem to have trouble digesting wheat flour, but not in a typical way (ie. the way a celiac would have trouble digesting it).

6) I'm going to make some lentils 'have sex' in about an hour!

I tag Crys. Shouldn't be that hard for 'ya (just kidding).

stupidstore

2007-01-17T23:37:00.000-06:00

does anyone else hate superstore for the following reasons?:

-dusty groceries
-unstocked shelves on basic items (especially on items you know are only sold at superstore such as indian spices or really basic items such as tomato paste)
-crappy produce
-long, long line ups of people with $200 worth of groceries
-lack of price tags
-non-logical positioning of certain items and no personnel to ask the location of these goods
-an underground parking lot where the lights are turned off while people are still paying for their groceries (is that really safe for a single female??)

I guess I could find consolation in the fact that I may be saving money by grocery shopping there, but that is really hard to judge when your grocery bill is $180.

Working in a male-dominated industry

2007-01-10T08:49:00.000-06:00

Advantage: No waiting in line ups for the bathroom.

Disadvantage: Getting hit on within a 'professional' conversation.

mE no (or knoW?) muLtitask

2007-01-08T22:50:00.000-06:00

in attempt to emulate my extremely hard-working, smart boyfriend who does the work of 2 people, i attempted multitasking today. after i nearly caused a somewhat epic flood i decided that i'll stick to one task at a time.

how should a ‘christian’ business person act?

2006-12-27T00:38:00.000-06:00

should this be a conundrum? i didn’t think so until the other day (2 days pre-christmas day) when my mom and i walked into a store sporting the ‘christian’ title 15 minutes before the listed closing time. of all the times i have slipped into a soon-to-close business, I have never received the greeting “we are closing in 5 minutes …blah, blah, blah” (basically please leave asap so i can ring out my till). we left the store in the allocated 5 minutes, then watched them turn away 3 shopping parties 2 minutes before the listed closing time. did i mention that this was happening 2 days before christmas?! strangely enough, my mom said it was about the third time she had received similar treatment from the employees of this particular store, and the reason wasn’t always the clock approaching closing time. for example, my parents had a major basement flood in the summer and she was shunned when asking for some help on book pricing in order to submit an insurance claim (which i really don’t think is too much to ask from someone who has not the know how or means to check pricing on the internet). my question is, what would a non-christian, or a person in desperate need think or feel if they received this treatment from someone who is assumed a christian based on the affiliation with their employment. actually, isn’t this just stupid business practice regardless your religious conviction? i guess lack of perceived competition with no other christian bookstores within a 50 km radius may contribute to lack of customer service, although i believe chapters and online christian bookstores may hold a slight price advantage … plus you wouldn’t have to deal with lovely ‘christian’ business people.

Hi Donna!

2006-12-15T19:49:00.000-06:00

I like finding out when unexpected random people from my life visit my blog.

1 week and I'll be home with the fam

2006-12-13T05:49:00.000-06:00

Nothing like watching the season finale of the Amazing Race at 5am to put one in the pre-holiday marathon mind set. I realize I am 36 hours late in watching it, but I am restricted to torrent availability which isn't too bad of a thing since I no longer listen to Shauna's news report in the morning which includes results of the previous night's TV shows (???) hence having the result revealed. Although I was disappointed 'bama didn't win the pot, I was glad to see some 'wholesome' recovering drug-addicts come out on top. They didn't seem to burn too many bridges, at least in the few episodes I watched. I can't wait for season 10 -- Go Hippies!!

On another note, I found my first grey hair a few weeks ago! Boo hoo for firsts post-28.

What an exciting day!

2006-11-28T19:57:00.000-06:00

9am: I received confirmation that I am funded to travel to South Asia for 3 weeks in February. I will be attending the International Traveling Workshop on Lentil in Bangladesh, India and Nepal! I can't wait.

2pm: I witnessed a rather stupid pedestrian colliding with a very non-defensive driver at the corner of College and Wiggins. Actually the actual impact was behind a large SUV (partially to blame for the accident), but the whole scene keeps playing over in my head. I was turning so wasn't able to stop, but I did see the girl walk off the road so I hope she is okay.

Glad to not be at CWA

2006-11-21T18:03:00.000-06:00

It is really freaky when you hear the name of someone you know on the national news, epecially when it is regarding their death. Read this if you would like to know what I am talking about.

Funny fact.

2006-11-20T18:22:00.000-06:00

Did you know that venereal disease is huge problem on community pastures? I found that funny.

I feel greedy.

2006-11-13T11:22:00.000-06:00

Every year around this time, my mom asks me "what do you want for your birthday [November 21st] and Christmas?". In anticipation of this question, I have created a 'wishlist'. I swore I would never conform to our materialistic society and do something like this, but I have. I feel greedy.

Miscellaneous

2006-11-09T12:56:00.000-06:00

Strangely enough I remember the exact moment when I first learnt the definition of the word 'miscellaneous'. My mom bought my grandpa a rack to hang things on that said 'MISC' and had to explain to me what it meant. I was in my then grandparents now parents' kitchen.

Anyway, my misc. items:

1) Welcome to my friend Joanna to the blogging world! I love the stories about her toddler twins.

2) In my endeavor to purchase snow tires I have learnt that not all tires have an inner-tube inside.

3) Driving 12 hours within a 29 hour time frame on winter-plagued highways (to Farmfair in Edmonton to see my brother and back in case you are wondering) is enough to make me long for the day I can afford a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

4) I had no idea a ‘troop’ referred to a single soldier. Does that word not sound plural to anyone else?

5) Does anyone know how to widen my template so my links do not get pushed to the bottom of my blog whenever I insert photos or movies into posts? Edit-me is useless in resolving this.

Air Rage

2006-10-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

I hate Air Canada,
I hate Westjet,
I hate living so far from family, and
I hate flying around Christmas.

600 dollars and 4 hours of screwing around on the computer are 2 things I don't have right now which one of these air lines just sucked out of me. Not to mention the 100 dollars I could have saved if one of these airline's reward program websites weren't all screwed up for an hour today or the additional 40 dollars I would have saved if they didn't change all the pricing I had previously checked (1 hour before). I think I am going to stop celebrating Christmas and start celebrating some holiday positioned around cheaper flying times.

2006-10-13T00:47:00.000-05:00

isnt there a bilaw against running a band saw outside at midnight?

i'm a new fan

2006-10-11T16:29:00.000-05:00

of regina spektor. a big thanks to Kelly Ryan and Cameron Phillips for introducing me.

Big Corn Maze

2006-10-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

Growing up in the 4-H program, I had the chance to interact with an array of keener-future farmers. Among all my fellow 4-Hers, I never doubted Dave McEachren would make his mark in the agricultural industry ... but I never considered he would do it with the world largest corn maze. Congradulations Dave! It looks awesome!

one year ago ...

2006-09-20T18:24:00.000-05:00

i was 42 pounds heavier. explains why i have been so cold lately. looking at myself in the mirror, i still see the same rolls and flab, but my loose fitting clothes (thankgoodness for the shrinking power of dryers) tell a different story.this whole episode with my weight over the past year and a half has really made me reconsider body image. i've never been skinny. actually most of my life i have resembled a 2x4 more than a girl or a woman. maybe never having a perfect phenotype made excessive weight gain a little easier to deal with psychologically. or maybe contentness with all other faucets of my life negated the extra weight. or maybe i am telling myself i was okay with it when actually i wasn't. my last two relationships in the past 5 years have been when i am 'skinny' compared to my norm. so either i look a million more times attractive when i am minus the extra pounds, or i am only comfortable with other people finding me attractive when i'm skinnier. i am afraid the latter might be true.

Anyone I know had pink eye recently?

2006-09-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

My left eye and my right elbow are both very red and itchy. That coupled with the head cold and other problem that is not appropriate to discuss publically makes me really want to crawl up back in bed. But no, I will plug on. A morning in Excel seems like a good solution. Oh yeah, I can't seem to get my blogroller working properly.

dilemma

2006-09-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

so my attempts to re-establish myself as a ‘good’ Christian by re-joining an old small group and are being challenge by abc’s decision to move grey’s anatomy to thursday night. my other personal conviction that is being challenged by abc’s switch is the ‘no tv in sally’s house’. so … is anyone planning on taping every episode this fall?